A game in which Hemel had slightly the better of the first half and took the lead after 25 minutes. An earlier strike by Jordan Chiedozie had been ruled offside. Not long after the Hemel goal, Jordan limped off with a groin strain and was replaced by Jon Davies. Hemel were well organised and quicker to the ball than Poole and took their 1-0 lead into the break.

We can only imagine the half time talk from TK, but whatever he said, seemed to work. The second half was Poole’s with chance after chance, but none hitting the back of the net. That’s not to say that Hemel didn’t have their own chances to finish the game off, but Poole had the lions share. Cann was replaced by Charles and Lowes replaced Devlin late on, but we still couldn’t find a way through a very well organized defense.

We will have another crack at them in a couple of weeks time when they visit the fortress. Hopefully we will be at full strength then and imagine having Emo, Bennett and Gillespie available for selection!

There is no shame in a close fought 1-0 defeat away at the runaway league leaders, who score goals for fun. If we can finish the rest of this season with such displays, we can plan for the playoffs. Hemel are champions Elect.